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Points Pertaining to the Use and 
. Phonograph ( Continued ) 
The Phonograph as an Alarm C 
Advertising by Phonograph 
Doggerel “ U** - 

The Modem Inventor 
Personal Note - 

Doggerel “V” - 

Pan-American Note 
The Phonograph in Navigation 
Enterprising Bootblack 
July Notes - 
A New Storage Battery - 
New Edison Records 


of the Edison 




11SJ8 


The PHONOGRAM 


POINTS PERTAINING TO THE USE AND CARE 

OF THE EDISON PHONOGRAPH. 

( Commenced in December number . ) 

By C. W. Noyes. 

Chapter V . — How To Replace a Broken Spring. 

% 

This is a job that had best be placed in the hands of an 
experienced repair-man but when this is inconvenient it is 
well to know just how to go about it if the following 
directions are closely adhered to no trouble should be ex- 
perienced. 

First of all, allow your machine to run completely down 
thereby removing all tension from the spring or springs. 

This is a point which is sometimes learned by sad experi- 
ence and if once you forget this you will have occasion to 
remember it forcibly for ever afterward. 

After the spring is unwound remove the spring barrel or 
casing which contains the spring. 

Mark on the outside of spring barrel the direction of the 
spring. That is, the direction of the coils of the spring 
from outside end to inside end. This must be marked in 
order that the new spring is put back in the same position 
and with its coils running in the same direction as the old 
one. 

The barrel shaft, or shaft which connects with inside 
end of spring should be removed and the spring removed 
from casing. 

Do not attempt to pull this out with the hand as the 


Copyright 1901, by Herbert A. Shattuck. 


r 


JULY 1901 35 



spring will uncoil with a great deal of force and is liable to 
cut the operator. Perhaps the best way to remove the 
broken spring is to tie a stout piece of cord or wire to the 
inside end of spring and lay the barrel on the floor, and by 
pulling on the cord the spring may be started and will 
come out without danger of injury. 

Do not attempt to hold it in any way but allow it to 
take its own course and it will spin around rapidly as the 
spring flies out and will do no harm. 

Obtain a new spring of the same size as the old one and 
see that it is held in shape by a wire twisted around it. 

Determine the position it is to be inserted in the barrel 
and drive the binding wire as close to the upper edge of 
spring as possible. This must be done so that the wire 
may be removed when the spring is placed in the barrel. 

Set the spring in position with the hole in outside end of 
spring about one inch ahead of the pin or projection in 
barrel. Now pry the binding wire loose with a screw 
driver and at the same time hold the spring down in the 
barrel with a piece of board, when the binding wire is re- 
moved the spring will relax and in so doing the hole in end 
of spring will fit over the pin in barrel. 

Now force the barrel shaft into position and see that the 
pin in same fits into slot in inside end of spring. Replace 
the barrel and spring in the machine and wind up slowly. 

If the hole in outride end of spring has failed to catch 
on the pin in the barrel, by winding the spring it will cause 
the outride end to fly around and catch. 

The spring should now be throughly dusted wjth graphite 
(do not oil it) and the machine is again ready for use. 

These directions seem simple enough but the fact is the 
success the operator may have depends a great deal upon 


- 


3 6 the Phonogram 


his mechanical ability and the writer would not advise the 
reader who has no ability in a mechanical line to attempt 
to replace a broken spring. 

( To be continued ) 


THE PHONOGRAPH AS AN ALARM CLOCK. 

A curious development of the Edison Phonograph is 
found in the speaking watches and clocks now being 
manufactured in Switzerland. The old repeater, which, 
on the pressure of an attachment, would strike or repeat 
the last hour, is thrown entirely into the shade by the new 
invention. In the new form of watch a button is pressed, 
but instead of a stroke of a bell the owner is informed of 
the time in articulate speech. Alarm clocks are also made, 
but instead of the usual small vibrating bell they call out: 
“It's 6 o’clock! Get up; don’t go to sleep again!” 
These talking watches and clocks are the invention of a 
French manufacturer who has settled in Geneva. — From 
the Jackson, Mich., Press. 


' ADVERTISING BY PHONOGRAPH. 

A clever Birmingham man has hit upon a brilliant adver- 
tising scheme. It consists of automatically-worked Phono- 
graphs imprisoned in pagodas such as are used by the tele- 
phone company for some of their public-call offices in the 
London Streets. The Phonograph is set and proceeds to 
describe a pinner at Smith’s for so much or mentions that 
the invisible and imprisoned speaker is wearing a suit of 
Brown’s clothes, which are really startling value for a 
small sum. 




stands for USEFUL 

te talking alarm 
simply perfection; 
works like a charm. 


JULY 1901 

37 

U 

% * * H * •• 

. . * # # A A — - 








THE MODERN INVENTOR. 


“The day of haphazard inventing and haphazard dis- 
coveries is rapidly passing,” said a local electrician the other 
evening. “The up-to-date scientist grapples with a certain 
problem ; he knows what he wants to get, he understands 
the laws bearing on the subject, and he sits down calmly 
to dig it out. Look, for example, at the new system of 
long-distance telephony just perfected by Prof. Michael 
Pupin of Columbia University, and sold for half a million 
dollars cash and $17. 500 annual royalty! It is the biggest 
scientific sensation of the day, and well deserves to be, not 
only on account of the importance of the invention, but 
because it sharply marks the line between the old and the 
new methods. 

“Ever since the telephone was invented, trouble has been 
experienced in preventing waste of the electric current and 
keeping enough of it on the wire to operate remote instru- 
ments. It was known perfectly well that this waste or 
leakage was due to vibrations, which became worse and 
worse as the line was lengthened, and it was also known 
that the vibrations could be deadened -or * dampened ’ by 
putting occasional coils around the main, cables. But no- 
body knew the laws that governed the vibrations them- 
selves, so sometimes the coils would operate and sometimes 
they wouldn’t; it was all guesswork. Well, that was the 
problem young Prof. Pupin sat down to solve five years ago 
— not with experimental machines, but with ample pencil 
and paper. He saw at once that it was primarily a question 
of mathematic, and for at least three years he toiled away, 
slowly evolving the much-needed law of mechanical vibra- 
tion. At last he rounded it out, and the rest was a mere 


JULY 1901 39 



matter of application, although he was occupied a couple of 
years longer building cables for purposes of demonstration. 
One of them was 500 miles long, coiled up in one im- 
mense cellar, and it is said that that part of the work cost, 
altogether, nearly $150,000. Who was the financial 
sponsor of the undertaking hasn’t been stated, and in that 
connection it is an interesting circumstance that Pupin and 
Tesla, who are fellow countrymen — Servians — are the only 
two eminent electricians of the day who have ample wealth 
placed at their disposal for the development of their ideas. 
Much curiosity has often been expressed as to Tesla’s un- 
known banker, for he is personally poor ; and, in the case 
of Prof. Pupin, it is clear that some generous capitalist was 
at hand, ready and willing to back genius to the limit. 
Rest assured, the big things of the future will be found by 
highly trained specialists who know exactly what they are 1 
going after and who are supplied with unlimited funds. 
The result will then be merely a matter of so much brain 
grind .” — New Orleans Times- Democrat. 


PERSONAL NOTE. 

It is with great pleasure that we announce that our Mr. 
Shattuck has recovered sufficiently to enable him to leave 
for Matamoras, Pa., where he hopes to fully regain his 
health. 

In all probability, before our next issue, he will be able 
to'resume his labors in connection with this booklet. 


“Kim.” 



V is a VILLA 

Whose Phonograph plan 
Shows the owner to be 
A good-hearted man. 





JULY 1901 


PAN-AMERICAN NOTE. 

There is no doubt but what a great many of our readers 
purpose visiting the great Fair at Buffalo some time between 
now and November, and all who do will find something 
of interest at our space in the Electrical Building. 

All who are interested — and who are not ? — in the out- 
come of the ideas emanating from the great brain of the 
wonderful Thomas Alva Edison will be welcome, and the 
time will be well spent in examining the “ Edison Labora- 
tory Products.’* 

MAKE IT YOUR HEADQUARTERS. 

Have your telegrams and mail forwarded in our care, 
and our Exposition Manager, Mr. W. H. Markgraf, will 
give you a cordial greeting and make you feel at home. 


THE PHONOGRAPH IN NAVIGATION 

At the last meeting of the Polytechnic Society an engi- 
neer named Leisner explained a new kind of Phonograph 
for service at sea. By coupling together several membranes, 
between each of which a microphone is fixed, he has suc- 
ceeded in so strengthening the tone emitted by all sound 
that any noise can be heard for a distance of three sea miles. 
It is suggested that by means of this invention a commander 
at sea will be able to issue his orders to all the ships in his 
fleet, and that in the same manner ships will be able to 
communicate with each other in the densest fog. Of course, 
it would be equally useful on land, and railway accidents, it 
is thought, may be also greatly diminished, as warnings 
could be given at long distances apart. 

— From the American , Baltimore, Md. 


I 


42 


THE PHONOGRAM 


ENTERPRISING BOOTBLACK. 

Toledo has a bootblack who has the boldness and energy 
of a Chicago pork packer. Enterprise is the slogan of the 
day. Increased competition has brought this about, and 
the bootblack has his little business schemes just as have 
the bulls and bears on ’change. This youth of business 
acumen has a little stand at the corner of St. Clair and 
Madison Streets, and has as assistants a young man and a 
boy. The stand contains some unique furniture for a boot- 
blacking establishment. There are three chairs in the in- 
closure, and at one end is a Phonograph with which cus- 
tomers are entertained if they so will. At the other end is 
a bushel basket of luscious apples with which the men with 
shoes to be cleaned are also regaled. Sometimes when a 
customer looks pretty particularly genial, the boys sell him 
an apple or two. There is no telling but what the next 
attraction will be a couple of dancing girls or a recherche 
monologuist. — From the Journal , Boston, Mass. 


“ That will be a popular song,” commented the com- 
poser’s friend. “ Is it as bad as that ? ” groaned the com- 
poser. — From the Detroit Free Press. 


A DAINTY BIBELOT. 

We Sat Apart by Eugene Lee ; a charming little love 
poem, quaintly conceived, and written in a manner that 
will appeal to all — especially lovers. It is choicely printed 
on hand made deckle edge paper, and is bound in old style 
wrappers. Price, postpaid, fifty cents. Auguste Giraldi, 
No. 170 Fifth Avenue. New York City. — Adv. 


? 


\ 


The PHONOGRAM 


SUBSCRIPTION THIRTY CENTS A YEAR 
SINGLE NUMBERS, FIVE CENTS 


Published by HERBERT A. SHATTUCK 
at Number 135 Fifth Avenue, New York City 


Printed Monthly for those interested in the Arts of Record- 
ing and Reproducing Sound; also for those interested in 
Animated Pictures. Official Handbook of The Order of The 
Phonogram, A very Special Department ivill be devoted 
to all Questions and Answers relating to Phones , Graphs , 
Grams , and Scopes. Correspondence welcomed by the Editor. 


JULY NOTES. 

[ “A queer thing about moving pictures for the Kineto- 
scope,” said an expert operator in that line tome the other 
day, “is the illusion they generally produce as to the time 
they occupy on the screen. What is known as the 
* standard exhibition film * is fifty feet long. It is used 
almost entirely Tor comic scenes, trick pictures and other 
effects that are gotten up in the studios of the experts who 
make thenj a specialty. Every theatre-goer has seen them, 
and I will venture the assertion that the average man will 
declare they take at least three or four minutes in passing 
before the eye. As a matter of fact the picture is on' the 
screen less than one minute. You can easily figure it out 
for yourself. The ordinary fifty-foot film of the kind to 
which I refer is put through the reproducing machine at 
the rate of sixteen pictures to the second. Each picture is 
three-fourths of an inch broad, which makes the sixteen 
measure exactly one foot, edge to edge $ in other words. 


44 


THE PHONOGRAM 

the film travels a foot a second — fifty feet, fifty seconds. 
What gives it the effect of taking up so much more time 
is the immense lot of action that is crowded into the brief 
period it is on view. Until the moving picture was in- 
vented, I don’t think anybody had the least idea how much 
could be done in fifty seconds. It seemed hardly enough 
time to turn around in, yet when the experts began to study 
its possibilities they found it was ample for hundreds of 
little pictorial comedies that have since delighted audiences 
all over the world. It is entirely a matter of rehearsal. 
A subject is selected, generally calling for from three to 
four people, and every detail of the business action is care- 
fully worked out in advance. 

“But some of the most telling effects in composition 
pictures,” continued the operator, “have been the result 
of accident and were entirely unpremeditated. That was 
the case with the film that I had in hand preparing and 
which afterward made a tremendous hit and proved to be 
one of the best sellers ever put on the market. In getting 
up the picture, our principal purpose was to introduce a 
large and very intelligent bulldog I owned at the time, and 
we sketched out a simple little scene in which a tramp 
steals a pie from a kitchen window, is pursued by the dog, 
and is last seen trying to scale the back fence, with the 
animal hanging to his coattails. The training of the dog 
was the main trouble, but I finally taught him to lay hold 
of anything red, and we sewed a big piece of flannel as a 
mark on the back of our tramp’s coat. Red photographs 
black, so it couldn’t be seen in the pictures, and after a 
good many rehearsals, the dog learned to dash out at exact- 
ly the right moment and nail the marauder, whose cue was 
then to rush for the fence and consume the remaining time 


45 



in making an apparently desperate effort to scramble over 
the top. At last we got everything all ready, gave the 
word, and started the record machine to take the picture. 
Immediately the little comedy began the tramp appeared, 
looked around stealthily, saw the pie, hooked it, and was 
having a feast when out sprang the bulldog and seized him 
by the coattails. He thereupon sprinted to the fence and 
was about to carry out the rest of the programme, when, 
to our consternation, the boards gave way and he came 
down bang on top of the dog. The film had about ten 
seconds to run, and they were occupied in recording one of 
the liveliest scraps that ever happened. There was no 
hippodrome about it. Both parties were out for blood. 

When the fence fell, the bulldog had promptly transferred 
himself from the tramp’s coattail to the tramp’s calf, while 
that unfortunate person snatched up a broomstick and tried 
to pry him loose. They rolled over and over and put 
about fifty times as much action and animation in the last 
ten seconds as had been crowded into the preceding forty. 

We finally pulled them apart, and it was not until the 
negative was developed that we realized what a prize we 
had accidentally secured. That earnest and impromptu 
windup has convulsed audiences all over Christendom, and 
made fully as much of a hit in Europe as it did at home. 

It is old now, but it is still a sort of standby in the vaude- 
ville hpuses, and never fails to raise a laugh. If a man 
had a monopoly of such lucky flukes, he would soon get 
rich.” 

i 


! 



4 6 THE PHONOGRAM 


THE NEW STORAGE BATTERY. 

« It is the simplest thing in the world," declares the 

inventor in an interview. 

Mr. Thomas Alva Edison has at last succeeded in accom- 
plishing what all other electrical experts have been endeav- 
oring to do for the past decade, and that is, to produce a 
light-weight storage battery, without impairing its efficiency. 

That this has been accomplished is evidenced by the feet 
that a company was recently formed with a capital of 
$1,000,000, the purpose of which is to manufacture and 
market the perfected battery. 

Herman E. Dick, of Chicago, 111 .; Walter S. Mallory, 
and William E. Gilmore, of Orange, N.J., are the incor- 
porators. The latter is General Manager of all the Edison 
plants. An immense plant has already been secured by the 
company at Glen Ridge, N. J., where a great number of 
hands will soon be employed. 

The present company will undoutedly be the parent 
concern of subsidiary companies to be organized in other 
countries. 

It is said that the secret of Mr. Edison’s achievement 
lies in the use of iron and nickel oxide plates in an alkaline 
solution instead of lead and oxide. “ Kim.*’ 

NEW EDISON RECORDS 

Both Standard and Concert Records may be ordered from 

this list. 

Transfer from Sweet to Mesloh 

Concert Polka 2405 and Yankee Doodle 2434 

7850 I must a -been a dreamin Comic coon duet Co Sc Na 

7851 Tyrolienne, with variations Cornet solo Mes 



NEW EDISON RECORDS 


Hello Central Give me Heaven Sent' l song Har 
Ma Blushin* Rosie, from Fiddle-dee-dee Miss N 

Home Sweet Home Miss Price 

She’s getting more like the white folks every 
day Comic coon song Q 

Olympia Hippodrome March Band E 

Medley of Plantation Melodies Quartette E Q 
Zamona, by the author of Salome Banjo O 

Yale Boola March •with College cries. Orchestra P 
The Birds and the Brook •with Bird effect li P 
Uncle Josh Weathersby’s Kuskin* Bee Dance 
Everybody present, “fiddler" and all, with 
Uncle Josh “ Callin' off" Stw 

Melancholy Mose, Coon song with Banjo 

accompaniment and duet chorus Co 

Calantha Waltzes ' Band E 

When the Boys come home once more. 

Military song from The Messenger Boy Du 
As the Summer days go by Sentimental song Mah 
Shultz on Hypnotism Comic Recit Ken 

The Turkey and the Turk Comic song Den 

Battle of the Waves March Banjo O 

The Lamb’s Gambol “ O 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder Sent' l song Mac 
I’ve a longing in my heart for you, Louise “ Na 
My Rainy Daisy Serio-comic love song My 

A Coaching Party, Desc. selection , with coach 
horn, stop for refreshments , dialogue and 
effects Orch P 

Ave Maria, adapted from Intermezzo Cavalleria 
Rusticana Italian song V 

Serenata Arragonesa Spanish song V 

A la Luz de la Luna Dan%a. Spanish song V 
Romanza del Diablo en el Poder Spanish song V 
Tango de la Menegilda en La Gran Via “ V 
Nara Swedish Elm 



EDISON 

PROJECTING 

kinetoscope 


s unequalled for HOME ENTERTAINMENT. 
The improved machine is now so simple that an ama- 
teur can operate it. Projects both moving pictures and 
8tereopticon slides on the screen. The mechanism is 
turned by hand. If electric current is not in your town 
or in your house, w give you choice of other ways 
of making the light.- Our catalogues give complete 
information and lists of moving pictures. 


DEPARTMENT E 


EDISON M’FG. CO 


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